José Argueta - Week 7 - Site Specific Blog

 

For my site specific blog, I chose to go to the Irvine Spectrum. As you can see from the image above, the overall theme of the place was Christmas/holiday time. The palm trees were lit and so was the Ferris wheel. The place also now has a skating ring to add to the idea of snow and holiday activities. As with any kind of holiday related theme, it brings about feelings of joy and of course stress specially going through the stores and being constantly reminded that I need to do my Christmas shopping soon. I think with the collaboration of the lights, the physical design and placement of the tree and such, and the music at the venue, it was a successful design and accomplished its goals.

For my unsuccessful store, I personally chose Hello Kitty Cafe. Although the theme of the store was cute and is designed to instill happiness, it somehow doesn’t achieve that for me. I think what doesn’t work for me is the darkness in the windows themselves as well as the little roof thing over the door. For whatever reason it reminds of the posters from the movie "Five Nights at Freddy's" and gives off a creepy look. I’m including the picture below. 

 

For my second store, I chose Heat. I’ve never been in this store, but I felt like the design was successful. I believe the designers were going for a simple, modern look. The store name is brightly lit with a color that is different from the rest of the color palette which instantly draws my eye to it. The design is clean and simple and the lights help to elevate the basic three color palette of black, gray and red. I felt like the plant in the front could use a little more light since at first glance it might be a detail that’s lost but I did otherwise find the design to be successful. I think the lighting and overall design helps to also draw you in to see what’s inside since you see the different colors inside versus a busy distracting outside look.